After owning this kit for a while, a couple of things cause me grief. The first is the snare, it doesn't capture dynamics all that well.. in fact, I find the tom pads actually do a better job! The snare basically registers a max strength hit when you're hitting the pad only with moderate, average force. This can certainly make things tougher than you're used to with an acoustic kit. I find when doing rolls that build in volume, I have to make a conscious effort to make it possible, instead of the pure ease with a real snare drum.

The second thing that bothers me is the hihat. It also doesn't capture dynamic playing all that well. Each hit comes off sounding the same. I find cheaper Roland kits have better hihat response than these. So you can forget about accent notes and ghost notes, they pretty much show up as having the same force regardless of how you play them.

Also, a more minor problem is that it's sometimes hard to play the bells of the cymbals because it sometimes picks up as you hitting either the bow, or hitting the bell very quietly. This can make playing certain patterns frustrating.

I wouldn't use the built in sounds on this. Get a midi cable and connect it to your computer, and play with some sampling software instead. Overall, I think this is a fairly good kit, but if you REALLY want a truly satisfying ekit experience, go for at least a Roland TD-12. It's what I'm getting next.

the set is held at a great price!!! thr triger is sensative to it picks up everything!! the only thing that would be a little better it the high hat ... it dosent pick up the sounds when you hit it while opening and closing ... kinda confuzzzling to tell it. but all around great set that is way worth the money ... surprised its not more!

I waited and watched the shipping details as my DTXPress IV special made it's way to my state. I was already excited, but when the product got here I was actually ill prepared for how good it was. I'm a careful buyer, so I read every review I could find, watched youtube demos of the kit and I still didn't really get a sense of what exactly I was getting. You hear a lot of criticism about the cymbal sounds, but I think they are very realistic. Some of the sounds don't match the kit they are coupled with when using factory sounds, but EVERYTHING is tweakable. I can't say that they are better than the Roland TD kits, but I can say that I like them enough that I don't care. My friend Benji has an older set of V-drums and the sounds on my DTX stomp his Roland into the mud. If you are on a budget and debating spending the extra $500 to get this kit instead of the Simmons SD9K, think no more. I tried both kits and you won't miss the extra salad that you spend to get this kit. Also, you can add toms onto the kit if the # of toms is a turn off to you like it was me. I got and extra pad and just used a channel insert cable and there it was. If you're on a budget buy this kit, all I have are exceeded expectations and a great e-kit.

QUALITY I've gotta give this Yamaha e-kit props. All the drum pads feel excellent; I certainly don't miss Roland's mesh pads while using these. The bass drum pad is decent, but Yamaha's high-end DTXtreme III has probably spoiled me. The cymbal pads are also extremely high quality, and feel much better than the plastic-like low-end Roland pads, and Yamaha's low-end triangular dtxplorer pads.

SOUND-SELECTION There's a decent selection of sounds, though I pretty much only use the main kits, such as the Oak, Maple, and Beech Custom (I don't think there's a birch custom loaded on this module, but I can be wrong). Overall, playing is a rather gratifying experience. There are also a ton of percussive sounds.

SOUND-QUALITY The actual sound quality is rather nice, the kick drum samples range from punchy and solid for rock/pop/metal to resonant and high-tuned, perfect for jazz. The snares sound great, and rimshots also sound fantastic. Toms also sound very good.

PLAYABILITY What about playability? The pads all feel great to play on, and while it takes some adjusting to get used to from an acoustic kit, you'll adapt very quickly to the feel of an electronic kit.

THE NEGATIVES From playing this kit, the negative points I list here can also be attributed to most electronic kits, and not just this one. First of all, snare rolls (particularily buzz rolls) have the sound of an electronic kit. Instead of an even buzzing from the snare, you tend to hear very fast distinct snare hits. I suppose it goes to show that this Yamaha e-kit wont miss any hits you make, so that's a GOOD thing! But for buzz rolls, it kind of takes away from the sound, just a little though. It's not like it sounds completely terrible.

Also, the tom pads can practically be played like the snare, and on an acoustic kit, that's usually not as realistic, because the head tension is lower and there isn't a whole lot of bounce. So it takes away from the realism somewhat. It's just something you'll love or hate, and will take some getting used to regardless.

My BIGGEST complaint is the cymbals and the sounds they make. They sound like very fake and terrible. I'm not sure if there's a way to load REAL cymbal sounds, but if that option is possible, it'll definitely improve the kit. What REALLY annoyed me though was when I was trying to play a constant crash during the chorus of a hard hitting song. Instead of a realistic constant "sssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!!" sound, you get a single distinct cymbal crash every quarter note only, when I was playing 8th notes. It took away from the fun a lot, and could possibly be a contributing factor to me not choosing this kit.

OVERALL All the pads feel very nice, and playability is good. Overall sound is really nice, except for the cymbals. I'd purchase this kit mostly for practice and silent jamming with buddies, but for live playing and recording, I'll always use my acoustic kit. It is no doubt excellent for dorm/appartment life though. I recommend it.

This is the first electric drum set I have ever owned. I am impressed at the responsiveness of the pads and how many different settings and tweaks I can preform.

The only thing that really bothered me about this kit was the setup time. It took me about 2.5 hours from start to finish to get everything unpacked and set up. I knew it was going to take a while, and I was just really excited to jump into it. It's not a gripe really, just the only negative thing I can come up with.

Preset kits can all be tweaked and mix-n-matched so you can customize everything.